Heel breasting equipment



Jan. 3, 1967 J. A. HARRINGTON ETAL HEEL BREASTING EQUIPMENT Original Filed Sept. 25, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 BY CZAFEA/( .4. JON/1150,11

,4 TTO/PA/EV'J Jan. 3, 1967 J. A. HARRINGTON ETAL HEEL BREASTING EQUIPMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Sept. 25, 1962 1967 J. A. HARRINGTON ETAL 3,295,215

HEEL BREAST I NG EQUIPMENT Original Filed Sept. 25, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet :5

W4. Maw/gay F76. 0/2100 4.?0/1/4/[145' we United States Patent 1 Claim. (Cl. 33143) This is a division of application Ser. No. 226,020, filed Sept. 25, 1962.

This invention relates to a heel breasting apparatus, and more particularly to a breasting apparatus and method for breasting heels under high speed production conditions to obtain an improved breasted surface on the heels.

In shoe manufacturing, the wedge-heel type construction is formed by securing the heel between the shoe and the sole. Thus, the sole extends fiat across the heel, bends into contact with the front surface of the heel, and then extends fiat to the toe. The sole is bonded by an adhesive to the heel and shoe. Wedge heel inserts must be breasted at an angle to provide optimum adhering conditions between the contoured sole and the heel, a good bond must be formed between the front angular breasted surface of the heel and the sole. Even though this surface is presently formed at an angle, there is often considerable difficulty in effectuating a secure, lasting bond between this angular surface and the overlapping sole due to the large stress tending to cause the sole to pull away. In many instances, a sponge rubber sole, especially, will pull away from the front breasted heel surface. After much testing, it has been found that this tendency to pull away is due to the presence of a glazed surface which occurs during the conventional shearing, breasting operation.

This breasting operation is conventionally conducted on one element at a time, by manually positioning the heel stock at an angle with respect to a shear blade. The blade is reciprocated through the heel at the predetermined angle. As is well-known to those in the field, these blades become dull very rapidly. The dull blades cause heating and resulting glazing of the heel material, especially rubber, during shearing. Moreover, these knife blades require constant maintenance. They often form a production bottleneck due to the item-by-item operation. They also wear out rapidly, thereby requiring frequent replacement. Further, they are dangerous to the operating workman.

It is an object of this invention to provide a completely novel and unique breasting apparatus that enables high speed breasting of a large number of heels at one time. Moreover, the apparatus does not require frequent maintenance for or replacement of cutting elements. It neither requires nor utilizes the conventional shear blades.

It is another object of this invention to provide a novel breasting apparatus not only effecting rapid production, but also substantially reducing danger to workmen.

It is another object of this invention to provide a breasting apparatus that actually effects a superior breasting operation on the heel surface without any resulting glaze, and in fact, if desired, can effect a roughened surface of a controlled amount to create optimum bonding conditions between the sole and the heel for any particular material.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a novel method of breasting heels, especially for wedge heel shoes, which imparts superior bonding characteristics to the front breasted surface of the heel, and eliminates undesirable glazing heretofore experienced.

It is another object of this invention to provide a novel method and device for pre-setting the heel breaster. The device assures breasting of a plurality of heel doubles into exact halves, regardless of thickness variations in the doubles with different batches.

These and several other objects of this invention will be apparent upon studying the following specification in conjunction with the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the front and one end of one form of the novel breasting apparatus;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary perspective view of the opposite end of the breasting apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, enlarged perspective view of the front of the breasting apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a view of the breasting apparatus taken on plane IVIV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary, sectional, enlarged view of the band saw blade and its adjacent guide panel of the breasting apparatus;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a typical heel-double forming the starting stock of the novel breasting apparatus and method;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary, elevational view of a typical wedge heel type shoe embodying the breasted heel;

FIG. 8 is a plan view of a modified form of the breasting apparatus;

FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of the fixture gauge element of the novel breaster-jig pre-setting device, with a plurality of heel doubles in place; and

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary perspective view of the breaster-jig and the setter gauge.

Basically, the inventive heel breasting apparatus comprises a frame, a band saw adapted to operate in one general position with respect to the frame, reciprocal carriage means adapted to reciprocate to and fro past said blade, and preferably powered by fluid cylinder means, and heel-double jig means on said carriage means adapted to align and securely hold a plurality of heel-doubles for breasting. The jig means includes two side elements positioned diagonally with respect to the line of carriage travel and on opposite sides of the blade.

The side elements align a plurality of heel-doubles to retain them diagonally on a specific angle with respect to the blade. Two end elements of the jig are positioned on opposite ends of the side element. They are adjustable with respect to each other, and thus are adapted to hold a plurality of heel-doubles against longitudinal movement during breasting. The combination of the side elements and end elements form a parallelogram with two obtuse angles and two acute angles. The end members of the jig are adjustable in the direction of movement of the carriage to accommodate varying thickness heel-doubles. The side members are likewise adjustable toward each other diagonally with respect to the direction of move ment of the carriage, to accommodate varying length heeldoubles. Adjustment of the side elements may also be necessary to accommodate different thickness doubles. The side elements may include replaceable, inner, stepped plates with steps of different widths to accommodate varying thickness heel-doubles.

A heel guide and separation panel coplanar with the blade and adjacent thereto prevents jamming of divided heel-doubles into the blade on reverse reciprocal movement of the carriage.

The inventive method of breasting heels comprises the steps of stacking a plurality of heel-doubles, spacing each double longitudinally with respect to the adjacent doubles to create a particular stack angle, and sawing the stack through the middle thereof and at said stack angle on a plane dissecting all of said doubles equally, to provide duplicate heels on each side of the blade. Each heel has an unglazed, roughened, angular breasted surface. The invention also comprises a pre-setting device for the breasting jig, including a fixture gauge and a setter gauge. The fixture gauge measures the length of a diagonal stack of doubles regardless of the thickness. The setter gauge enables adjustment of the side jig members to exactly one half of this measured length.

Referring now to the drawings, the novel breasting apparatus 16 includes a band saw mechanism 12 composed of a conventional upper housing 14 in which a conventional rotatable idler wheel 13 for guiding the band saw is located, and lower housing 16 in which a second conventional drive wheel for the band saw blade is located. The blade 19 passes around the lower drive wheel, through the back of the housing, over the upper idler wheel, through an exposed front portion between the housing to allow work to be done thereby. A platform or bed 20 is mounted adjacent the front exposed portion of the band saw blade 19. The band saw is guided in its exposed area by conventional guides 22 and 24.

Mounted upon platform 20 by suitable means such as bolts 27 is a frame 26 which in the form of the invention illustrated includes an upper level defined by a pair of guide tracks 30 and 30' (FIG. 2) and a lower level defined by a second pair of guide tracks 28 and 23. Each track is generally a U-shaped guide facing the cooperating track on the opposite side. A platelike carriage 36 is guided by tracks 30 and 30' in reciprocal travel. A similar lower carriage 33 is adapted to reciprocate within guide channels 28 and 28'. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the front U-shaped upper channel 36 is foreshortened to enable access to the lower carriage 38 when in the position illustrated in FIG. 3.

Mounted upon upper carriage plate 36 is a first jig means 50 adapted to hold a series of heel-doubles 52 (FIG. 6). By the term heel-double is meant the starting workpiece which will form two identical heels when severed by the breasting machine. The saw cut is made along the phantom plane shown in FIG. 6. Jig means 50 is essentially a parallelogram with two obtuse angles and two acute angles. It is formed by two side elements 56 and 54 (i.e. in front and back, see FIG. 4), and end elements 58 and 60. The end elements are parallel with each other and at an angle with respect to the reciprocal movement of the carriage as illustrated by the arrow in FIG. 4. Central slot means 66 is provided in the front end element 60, thereby severing front element 60 into two portions to enable the jig means to pass the band saw blade when the carriage is reciprocated. The rear element 58 includes a pair of upstanding fingers 61 on opposite sides of the centerline. These project substantially iabove element 58 to hold the heel-doubles straight and true during cutting; and yet enable element 58 to be relatively short for convenient loading and unloading of the doubles into and out of the jig. At least one of the end elements includes elongated slots 65 into which the connecting pins or bolts 64 interfit to allow adjustment of the end elements toward and away from each other. Keyways 69 in the carriage plate and cooperating keys on the end elements assure proper alignment. This enables accommodation of varying thickness heel-doubles.

The side elements 54 and 56 each includes an outer support bar 68 which has elongated slots 70 through which bolts are attached to the carriage plate 36 in a similar manner for diagonal adjustment. Removable stepped face plates 72 are attached to each bar 68 by suitable bolts 74. The side elements can be adjusted relatively toward or away from each other in a diagonal manner with respect to the saw or i.e. with respect to the direction of movement of the carriage plate 36 to accommodate varying length heel-doubles. Each step cooperates with the corresponding step on the opposite face plate to align a heel-double 52 therebetween. The opposite faces are parallel. The different width steps of replaceable face plates accommodates varying width heel-doubles. Therefore, longitudinally adjusting the end plate means, by diagonally adjusting the side plate means and by providing the proper face plates, any size heeldouble can be accommodated in the apparatus.

When a plurality of heel-doubles 52 are inserted in the jig means as shown in FIG. 4, they are held longitudinally by the end elements and are positioned and held diagonally and laterally by the side elements. In this arrangement, several heel-doubles can be cut at one time at an exact angle along the phantom plane 53 illustrated in FIG. 6. In the form of the invention illustrated, nine heel-doubles are sawed into eighteen heels in the upper jig means, and nine additional ones are sawed in the lower jig means 89. This lower jig means is identical to the upper jig means as mounted on its carriage plate 38. In FIG. 3, the front element of the lower jig means is removed to show the elongated key slot means 82 in the carriage plate 38.

Each of the carriage plates includes a forward projection 86 adapted to shift a control valve 68 to limit the reciprocal travel of the carriage, i.e. act as a limit switch. In FIG. 2, the upper limit switch 83 is shown shifted, and the lower limit switch 88 is in its unshifted position. Normally, the carriages are controlled to cause one to be shifted to the right, while the other is shifted to the left. This allows unloading and loading of one, while the heel-doubles in the other are being sawed. The carriage plates 36 and 38 are reciprocated by fluid cylinders 90 and 92 respectively. The cylinders are mounted on a vertical support plate 94 fixedly secured to platform 26 as shown in FIG. 2. The rods (FIG. 4) of the air cylinders are connected to the carriage plates with suitable couplings ltitl interfitting with a. T-slot in the carriage plate. Other suitable connections can be used.

The band saw blade 19 extends through an opening 166 (FIG. 2) in platform 26 of the apparatus. Adjacent the band saw blade coplanar therewith and extending to the rear thereof is a metallic plate or panel 11% As illustrated in FIG. 5, this plate is preferably secured by suitable screws 112 to a bar support 114, which in turn is secured by bolts 116 to frame 26 of the apparatus. Welded to this panel is a thin, vertically elongated, metallic platelet or shedder blade 118 which extends adjacent one side of blade 19, but is not attached to the blade. Panel 1110 and platelet I18 protect the band saw from being jammed by the sawed heels either during forward or return movement of the car riage. The end edges of this shedder are purposely tapered to prevent the cut heels from snagging it when passing.

A suitable control box 120 includes switch 122 for actuation of the band saw, a second switch 124 for actuation of the air source to the cylinders and valves, and an emergency stop switch 126. Box 120 is mounted upon stand 128 extending upwardly from the frame. A pair of manually operated valves or switches 136 and 138 may be utilized for safety purposes, to require both hands of the worker to be placed thereon before actuation occurs.

OPERATION When manufacturing shoes, such as the wedge-heel shoes 140 illustrated in FIG. 7, wherein the heel insert 142 is bonded between sole 144 and the main body of the shoe, it is desired to form an angular breasted front heel surface 146 which is not glazed, but rather is slightly roughened. This has been found to provide optimum bonding conditions with an adhesive placed between sole 144 and heel 142. To form the heels 142, therefore, a plurality of the heel-doubles 52 are inserted in each of the jig means 5t) and 80 when in their retracted position at the left of the apparatus as illustrated by jig 80 in FIG. 4. Here the upper jig 50 is shown filled with nine heel-doubles and partially shifted to the right so that a couple of the doubles have been breasted. Of course, face plates 72 are provided to suit the particular thickness heel-double, and the side elements and end elements are adjusted diagonally and longitudinally, respectively, to fit the particular thickness and length heeldoubles involved.

Initially, the workman had depressed switch 122 to actuate the band saw, and switch 124 to supply pressurized air to the apparatus. Then by depressing manual valves 136 and 138, the first cylinder 90 was actuated to retract and pull upper carriage 36 and its jig means 50 to the right. The heel-doubles and jig means are pulled past the moving band saw as shown in process by carriage 36 and jig 50 in FIG. 4 to sever the heel-doubles into two equal portions. This provides eighteen identical heels having front breasted surfaces cut an exact angle, and without any glazing. When the upper carriage reaches its maximum position to the right, projection 86 contacts limit switch 88 which halts rod 98 of cylinder 50. An elongated, centrally positioned slot 111 in the carriage, slot 66 in the front end element and a corresponding slot in the rear element allow carriage movement past blade 19 (FIG. 4). v

The second and lower jig means 80 is now ready to be loaded. Since upper carriage 36 has moved to the right, the lower jig means is accessible from above as illustrated in FIG. 4 to be loaded with heel-doubles. When it is loaded, manual valves 136 and 138 are again depressed by the workman to cause fluid cylinder 92 to retract and draw the lower jig means, with its contained heel-doubles, past the blade to sever them into identical heels. An elongated slot 113 in the lower carriage enables it to move past the blade. Simultaneously, upper cylinder 90 is actuated in a reverse direction to extend and move breasted heels back to the original position at the left of the frame for unloading. The heels move past panel 110 and platelet 118 which prevent jamming contact of the heels with band saw blade 19 when moving in this reverse direction. When the heel-doubles return to the original starting position, they are removed by the workman and replaced by a new batch of heel-doubles. By this time, the lower carriage has reached its extreme right position. Switches 136 and 138 are then again depressed to sever the new batch of heel-doubles in jig 50, and return the lower jig 80 with its breasted heels for emptying and refill.

Utilizing the novel apparatus, it has been found that instead of breasting heels one at a time as with prior art devices, a large number of heels may be breasted simultaneously in a high production manner. Also, the resulting breasted heel is a superior product, since the front surface 146 is not glazed as occurred with the prior shear blade, but rather slightly roughened and textured to provide good bonding characteristics. This texture can moreover be accurately controlled to suit any particular heel material, by controlling the tooth pitch on the blade.

MODIFICATION Instead of the stepped construction of side elements 54 and 56 illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4, side elements 54 and 56' (FIG. 8) may be substituted. It has been found that in actual practice the thickness of any one length double may vary from batch to batch. This is because the doubles are initially sheared from large sheets of rubber or related materials which often vary in thickness from sheet to sheet. Therefore stepped elements 54 and 56 of a specific size step to accommodate one thickness may not interfit well with doubles of another thickness. The rubber doubles must be held securely to prevent movement during sawing since this allows fishtailing of the blade causing the cut heels to be scrap. However, the doubles cannot be squeezed too tightly together since the blade will jam as the cut rubber springs into the kerf. Therefore, if the thickness of the heels tends to vary, it may be more desirable to use the planar wall side elements 54' and 56'. These are diagonally adjustable toward and away from each other on carriage 36. The side elements must also be mounted with one end flush against respective end elements so that the heels will be properly gauged. More specifically, side element 56' includes an inner edge 57 that is longitudinally adjustable through a bolt and slot connection 53 so that forward end 59 can be abutted against end element 60. The rear end 61 of side element 54 is constantly in abuttment with end element 58. This abuttment feature enables the first, and thus all heel doubles, to be oriented at the exact angle needed since the end and side elements are oriented at the exact predetermined angle using this abuttment to align them. The carriage is reciprocable in its tracks 28 and 28' (lower carriage) just as in the first embodiment of the invention.

The side elements cooperate with end elements 58 and 60, at least one of which is longitudinally adjustable to cause them to be adjustable with respect to each other. Upstanciing fingers 63 extend upwardly from rear element 53 for exact holding with easy loading and unloading. The breasting operation of this modified apparatus, with carriage 36 and slot 113 moving past the blade is the same as with the first embodiment.

PRE-SETTER The heel doubles must be severed into two exact halves, at the exact angle selected, without movement of the doubles or pinching of the blade during breasting. Consequently, the side elements and end elements of the jig must be carefully and exactly adjusted prior to operation. This adjustment must not only accommodate the length of each double, but also the diagonal length of a diagonal stack of doubles which can vary with heel double thickness variations as well as heel double length variations.

A unique method and device for setting these elements of the breasting jig is illustrated in FIGS. 8 through 10. This device includes both a fixture gauge (FIG. 9) and a setter gauge 152 (FIGS. 8 and 10). The novel pre-setting enables accurate adjustment regardless of thickness and length changes.

The fixture gauge 150 may comprise a base 154 and a vertical support panel 156. Mounted to panel 156 is a platform 158 and a diagonal guide 160. The guide may include a stepped or planar surface 162 which can be mounted to a bar 164-. Platform 158 and guide 162 serve to retain a diagonal stack of heel doubles 52 of the type to be subsequently breasted. The angle of guide 162 to platform 158 is the same as the angle of breasting in the jig. This angle is usually 120 to form a breasted heel where the front breasted surface is 60 to the top heel surface (FIG. 7). A collar 166 is secured to panel 156 and receives a leg 168 slidably moveable therein perpendicularly toward and away from guide 162 and the stack of doubles. A foot 170 on leg 168 is adapted to contact the upper edges of the stacked doubles 52. A lock nut and bolt 174 through collar 166 interfits through slot 176 in leg 168 to lock the leg in any position.

Setter gauge 152 comprises a first flat surface 180 adapted to fit against the wall 182 of elongated carriage slot 113, and a second surface 184 parallel to the first and adapted to contact the inner wall of one side jig element e.g. 56'. The second surface must be adjustable with respect to the first. Preferably surface 180 comprises one lateral surface of a projecting lip 188 of a block element 194 and is perpendicular to a horizontal surface adapted to rest on the top of carriage plate 36 when surface 180 is in contact with slot wall surface 182. In its simplest form, surface 184 may comprise the fiat top of the head of a threaded stud 196 threadably connected to block element 194.

USE OF PRE-SETTER To adjust the side elements 54' and 56, or 54 and 56, to accommodate a plurality of heel doubles of particular length and thickness, a diagonal stack is placed on platform 158 of fixture gauge 156 with one end in contact with diagonal guide 162 as in FIG. 9. Then, nut 174 is loosened to allow leg 168 to slide through collar 166 until foot 170 moves into contact with the corners of the other ends of the heel doubles 52. Nut 174 is then tightened to lock leg 168 and foot 170 in position. The heel doubles are then removed.

The distance between the inner surface points 200 and 202 of the guide 162 and foot 170 is then measured as by inside calipers or by indicator marks on panel 156, on a line perpendicular to the guide 162 and colinear with leg 168. This iline is perpendicular to the plane dividing the stack into two equal parts and represents the mean distance across the stack. This is the optimum distance between the side jig elements 54' and 56 to :breast this particular stack of doubles and is referred to herein as the mean dimension of the stack.

Next the setter gauge is adjusted by rotation of stud 196 to move surfaces 180 and 184 a distance apart equal to one-half the distance between points 200 and 202, minus one-half the width of slot 113. Slot 113 is on the center line of the carriage which is coplanar with saw blade 19. The width of the slot must therefore be accounted for in setting the pre-setter. If desired, the thickness of the lip might be made equal to one-half the width of slot 113. Then if one-half the distance between points 200 and 202 is duplicated between surface 184 and the back surface 185' of block 194, the device 152 will give the desired setting when placed in slot 113. The setter gauge 152 is then placed on carriage 36 (FIG. 8) with the lip in slot 113 and surface 180 abutting slot wall 182 (FIG. 10). Side element 56 of the jig is then moved into contact with surface 184 and is tightened down. The opposite side element is adjusted by turning setter 152 and for end and placing surface 180 against wall 183 of slot 113 (FIG. 10). Both side elements are then pre-set at exactly one-half the mean dimension of the stack of doubles, to cause the doubles to be breasted into identical halves.

The setter 152 is removed from the carriage and the heel doubles are loaded into the jig. End elements 60 is adjusted to hold the doubles firmly but not too tightly.

Thereafter, batches of like doubles can be breasted at length until a different thickness and/ or length double is encountered.

It will be obvious to those in the art that various modifications of the apparatus can be made within the principles of the invent-ion as taught. Such obvious modifications are deemed part of this invention, which is to be ilirnited only by the scope of the appended claims and the reasonably equivalent structures to those defined therein.

We claim:

A fixture for arranging a stack of heel doubles of like thickness to be breasted collectively at the same specific acute angle, comprising: a mount having a planar surface; means forming a sole-supporting flat support surface normal to said planar surface; a diagonal guide member normal to said planar surface and at an obtuse angle to said support surface, said obtuse angle being the complement of said specific acute angle for a total of 180; and said member having a series of like offset steps, each with a first face parallel to said fiat surface and a second face generally normal to said flat surface; and said second face having a dimension along said planar surface equal to the heel double thickness, whereby a stack of like heel doubles can be arranged with the bottom one on said fiat support surface, with their side edges abutting said planar surface and their ends on said first faces and abutting said second faces.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,313,608 8/1919 Rotsaert 33-174 1,644,033 10/ 1927 Rathbun.

2,548,917 4/1951 Spaill 33174 2,551,471 5/1951 Snow 33174 2,650,437 9/ 1953 Glynn 33-174 LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner.

SAMUEL S. MATTHEWS, Examiner. 

